Safe Healthcare Blog

Hosted by CDC’s Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion. If you have questions or comments about healthcare safety topics, please contact CDC-INFO at https://wwwn.cdc.gov/dcs/ContactUs/Form.

Keeping Your Hands Clean and Healthy

Truth: Alcohol-based is more effective and less drying than soap and water.

As a healthcare worker, clean hands count. Clean hands prevent the spread of illness in healthcare facilities. Unfortunately, the frequent handwashing and sanitizing needed to achieve this all too often results in painful, cracking, or broken skin on the hands. This raises an important question: what can we do to ensure our hands are clean Read More >

Posted on by Aída Lugo-Somolinos MD, Brandon L. Adler, MD and Jennifer K. Chen, MDLeave a commentTags , ,

Advancing Health Equity in Health Care

In March 1966, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and the most inhuman.” Health equity is the state in which everyone has a fair and just opportunity to attain their highest level of health.  Health disparities and inequities in infectious diseases (ID) Read More >

Posted on by Jacinda C. Abdul-Mutakabbir PharmD, MPH and Lauri A. Hicks, DO, FACP1 CommentTags , , , ,

Keep Your Kids Safe: Put Medicines and Supplements, Including Gummies, Up and Away

Professional woman smiling

National Poison Prevention Week (March 17-23, 2024) is a good time for parents and caregivers to review how medicines are stored in their homes. While you may keep prescription medicines Up and Away, and out of reach and sight of young children, it’s important to remember that over-the-counter medicines and supplements, such as vitamins and Read More >

Posted on by Rachel Meyers, PharmDTags

6 Tips for Patients to Avoid Healthcare-Associated Infections

Patricia Stinchfield

When a loved one is hospitalized, the last thing anyone wants is for them to get an infection while receiving care. Yet, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), on any given day, about 1 in 31 U.S. hospitalized patients has a healthcare-associated infection (HAI). An HAI is an infection that develops Read More >

Posted on by Patricia (Patsy) A. Stinchfield, RN, MS, CPNP6 CommentsTags , ,

Strengthening Infection Prevention and Control in Sierra Leone and Ethiopia

One person helps another to put on personal protective equipment

Experts are working together to bring down rates of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) in low- and middle-income countries, which can be at least 3 times higher than those in high-income countries. Healthcare professionals trained in infection prevention and control (IPC) are critical to reduce HAIs and improve patient and healthcare worker safety, but many healthcare facilities Read More >

Posted on by Lindsay Tompkins and Karen Wu5 CommentsTags